CHAPTER SIX: Emergency



'I hate sewing...man I hate sewing...if I ever found out who invented sewing...I'd sew the fly on their pants shut...that oughta teach'em,' thought Peter as he finished sewing up his torn costume.

It was a long and arduous process, but Peter's costume was finally ready to be presented once again to the world. Peter continued to ponder about what had gone on earlier in the day.

'Gotta admit, I'm just slightly curious as to how a group of teenagers were able to put up such a good fight. Wait, maybe that's the wrong term...beat the hell out of me. Yeah, that seems about right,' thought Peter. 'I've only got a hunch as to what it was, but I'm gonna have to find some concrete evidence to make the connection.'

Peter placed his costume on his bed. Consumed in his thoughts, he didn't notice the pair of scissors that were sitting on his nightstand until he bumped them off. The scissors fell and embedded themselves into the spider on the chest of the costume. Peter stared down at his costume in disbelief. He hastily approached his closet.

"Nuts to this. Where's that Bag-Man costume?" Peter asked himself aloud.

*******

"I...I can feel it...there are so many of them...so many of them that I can control..." Carnage said to himself out loud.

Carnage was standing in the center of the warehouse with a wide grin on his face. He could feel all of the people that his symbiote had possessed. He could detect their movements. He knew exactly what they were doing, who they were killing, and how many more spawns of his symbiote that were being produced. It was like ecstacy, to feel so many different things at once. But there was one sensation that outweighed them all. Carnage could feel death. And it was exhilarating.

The chaos, the onslaught, the mayhem, the death...all of it was flowing into his body in a wave, almost like an orgasm. Carnage only stood and smiled as he took in all of the pleasure, all of the sensations. And it was only being amplified with every passing moment. Every time another person died, every time another spawn of his symbiote was created, every time he had claimed another victim, Carnage could feel it. The riots he had caused were nothing compared to this. This truly would be maximum carnage.

*******

Peter, in a once-again fully sewn version of his costume, was swinging through the steel canyons of New York City with his eyes focused downward. He was busy looking for any suspicious goings-on, and possible clues to help his hypothesis as to what had happened with those teens that he fought the previous day. In a way, Peter was disappointed that he hadn't seen any activity. Not to say that there wasn't any, there were just a few things that he had overlooked. For instance, in an alley that Spider-Man happened to swing over, a young man was busy ripping out the throat of another young man. A few blocks away, two more people were being possessed. It wasn't until Spider-Man stopped at a bus stop that he managed to catch somebody. An elderly woman was waiting patiently for her bus, when a younger woman suddenly stepped out of the shadows and grabbed her by the throat. A red spike protruded from the girl's hand and prepared to strike at the old woman. That's when a pair of red boots slammed into the girl's back. The girl hit the ground, and then turned to face Spider-Man.

"Interesting way to help a senior citizen cross the street," spat Spider-Man. "Let me show you how I do it."

Peter fired a web at the girl and yanked on it. The girl flew several feet before slamming into a concrete wall. She immediately turned back to Spider-Man. She lunged at Peter, who dodged a series of swipes from her. When she went for the throat, Peter used her own momentum to pull her back, rolled onto his back, pressed his feet into her abdomen, and monkey-flipped her several feet away. The girl landed in the middle of the street. Peter turned to the old woman.

"Are you alright, ma'am?" asked Peter.

The old woman did not reply. Instead she turned and swung an open hand at Peter in an attempt to scratch him. He was just able to react to his Spider-Sense in the nick of time and jumped back to avoid the attack.

'Damn...too late..' thought Peter.

Looking up, Spider-Man could see the girl standing up in the middle of the street. A car was coming toward her, and the driver hadn't noticed her until it was too late. He honked his horn and screamed for her to get out of the way, but instead she lunged at his windshield. Her body crashed through the windshield, and then she grabbed his face. Peter watched in shock as the car swerved and watched it slam directly into a wall. Seconds later, both occupants arose from the car and advanced upon Spider-Man. Instinctively, Peter jumped to a nearby wall and climbed to the top of the building. This was becoming a serious problem, and he only knew of one person to turn to for help.

********

Captain Payne was on his way out of the door to go to work. Just as he approached the door, his wife stopped him. She sighed and glared at his tie, which was tied very loosely around his neck as opposed to actually being tied correctly.

"Jackson, for the hundredth time, would you fix your tie? Why would you just let it hang like that?" asked Gloria, his wife.

"But Denzel Washington does it..." Payne replied in a whining voice.

"If Denzel Washington jumped off of a bridge, would you?" she asked.

"Wish I was Denzel..." Payne muttered as he held his head up for his wife to fix his tie.

"There, you look much better. Don't you feel better?"

"Not entirely."

Gloria leaned over and planted her lips upon her husband's.

"I repeat: Do you feel better?" she asked.

"I might need more persuasion..."

Just as the husband and wife were about to kiss again, their ten-year old son, Chris, entered the room.

"Ewww!" Chris exclaimed.

"Ewww yourself," replied Captain Payne. He grabbed a pillow off of the nearby couch and threw it at his son. Gloria only sighed.

"Don't you have to go to work?" said Gloria with a smile.

"Yeah..." replied Payne. He really sounded like he didn't want to go. "I'll call you later."

The husband and wife kissed briefly again.

"I love you," said Payne.

"I love you, too," replied Gloria.

Captain Payne turned to his son.

"Don't destroy the house while I'm gone," he said.

"Yes, sir!" replied Chris as he saluted his father.

Captain Payne saluted his son and smiled, and then he made his way outside. He stepped into his car and prepared to drive. After placing the key in the ignition and starting the engine, he waited for a second and began to mull over everything that had been going on lately. He didn't want to say anything to his wife, but at the moment, the authorities were busy searching for Carnage. If there was anything his wife and child didn't need to know, it was that one of the city's most notorious murderers was running loose yet again. On top of that, there was also the string of disappearances that had occurred over the last few days. It didn't seem like anything Carnage would do. After all, he wasn't really one to conceal his victims. He liked to take credit for every kill. The people who had gone missing had been literally that: missing. No signs of bodies or anything like that.

By the time Captain Payne had come back to his senses, he realized that he had been sitting and thinking for about ten minutes. He was about to begin driving when he heard a thump on the roof of his car. Drawing his gun, he quickly stepped out of the car and aimed at the roof. To his surprise, there was nothing there. He eventually lowered back into his car and began driving. A few seconds later, he heard a voice.

"To the airport, Alfred," said Spider-Man from the back seat.

"What do you want?" asked Payne, who was eyeing Spidey in the rear-view mirror.

"To be properly chauffeured," replied Peter.

"I don't like repeating myself."

"I gotta talk to you about something."

"So, talk."

"Buy me a hot dog first."

"Are you insane?"

"I wear red and blue tights, don't I? Now buy me a hot dog. From Papaya King. Then we'll talk."

"I...I..."

Several minutes later Captain Payne and Spider-Man were sitting on the hood of his car in an alley, eating hot dogs, with Captain Payne drinking a Coke, and Spider-Man drinking a Cherry Coke.

"Ya know, you really should try Cherry Coke instead of that classic stuff," commented Spider-Man.

"What is the point of all this?" asked Captain Payne.

"That Cherry Coke tastes better than..."

"You know what I mean."

"Alright, listen...I need your help with this Carnage situation."

"This 'Carnage Situation' is none of your concern."

"Yes, it is. Look, we both need to catch Carnage as quickly as possible, because whatever he did to that man I fought the other day, he's still doing it to other people."

"And you know this how?"

"Admittedly, it's just a hunch."

"NYPD doesn't operate on hunches, you know? We want concrete facts, and we prefer to get said facts from people who are not afraid to reveal their identity."

"If you were suddenly given powers, but ran the risk of the whole world hating you because they thought you were a mutant, would you just let the world know?"

"Honestly, I'd probably try to make money from it."

Peter fell silent for a second and looked to the ground.

"Bad idea. Trust me on that," said Peter.

"I'll take your word for it. So let's say for a second that Carnage is still active. What exactly do you think he's doing?"

"I think he's found a way to control people. Kinda like his own personal zombies."

"You mean the way he controlled that man?"

"Exactly. You did an autopsy of him, right?"

"As far as we could tell, there was a bit of residue left around the brainstem, and the residue came from a living organism, but whatever it was wasn't human."

"It must have been from his symbiote. But I thought he only did this once..."

"You mean to tell me that there are more people walking around like that Johnson guy?"

"It seems that way. I've met a few people who seem to fit the same profile."

"Well, I'll be honest with you, Spider-Man, that's all we really know about it. Aside from that, our main priority is to find Carnage."

"Then it seems that we have a common goal. Still, I'd be careful. Carnage can be pretty unpredictable."

"Spider-Man, I was a lieutenant on the force back when Carnage started those riots. I've seen things you couldn't imagine. I think I know how to handle him."

"Not until you've faced him in combat can you begin to truly understand the way he operates, Captain. Trust me, your men can't handle Carnage alone."

"And you can?"

"I believe I can."

"And if you can't?"

"I can."

"What makes you think my men can't handle him?" asked Captain Payne.

"When did this suddenly become '21 Questions'?" asked Spider-Man.

"You'll have to forgive me, but I don't appreciate people doubting the NYPD. We're the best in the world."

"And I'm the best there is at what I do, bub!"

"Was that supposed to be funny?"

"Not at all." Peter finished the hot dog and drink and tossed them into a nearby dumpster. Then he arose. "I'll be looking for Carnage myself. I suggest you check out my hunch and see if there's any credibility to it."

"We'll continue doing what we're doing, and if you insist upon searching for Carnage, then I expect you to share any information you have with me. Otherwise, don't even bother involving yourself in this situation."

"Understood. I'll be in contact if I need you."

With that, Spider-Man leapt to the wall of a nearby building.

"And how are you supposed to do that?" asked Payne.

"I can reach you. Trust me." Spider-Man climbed to the top of the building and hopped onto the roof. Even though he was out of sight, Payne could still hear him. "And drink Cherry Coke. It's good for you."

Payne almost smiled...almost. He continued sitting and thinking for a moment. After a couple of minutes, he heard a noise. Looking up, he could see five people slowly shuffling toward him. He could also hear something behind him. There were three people behind him. He stood up on the hood of his car. Before he could react, one of the people in front of him jumped onto his car. The assailant grabbed him by the throat and slammed him against the nearby wall. Payne almost blacked out from the impact. As the one attacker was choking the life out of him, the other seven began to converge upon him...



END OF CHAPTER SIX